Musician claims 3 agents at Washington DC airport spoke Hindi: ‘H1B is a complete fraud’
A Florida man's social media post about Hindi-speaking gate agents at a Washington DC airport sparked debate over H1B visas and immigration.
A Florida man has claimed that he heard three gate agents at the Washington DC airport speaking in Hindi, and his social media post has sparked a wider conversation on US immigration. Sean Carpenter took to the social media platform X to ask why Indians were working at US airports when these jobs could be given to Americans instead.
His post has fuelled a broader debate around immigration and employment in the United States.
Musician’s post on Indians in US
“Sitting in the DC airport, listening to three gate agents speaking Hindi behind me. Tell me why we need Indians to work the gates at airports again?” Carpenter wrote on X.
He ended his post with a sharp critique of the H1B visa, which allows high-skilled workers to live and work legally in the United States. “H1B is a complete fraud,” wrote Carpenter, whose X bio states he is a Republican MAGA supporter.
The H1B question
Hindi is one of the most widely-spoken languages in India, a country whose nationals dominate the H1B programme. According to US Citizenship and Immigration Services data quoted by NDTV, Indian nationals received 72.3 per cent of all H1B visas issued by the US for the period October 2022 to September 2023.
The H1B programme has long been criticized for undercutting American jobs. However, the programme is only for skilled workers – like those in tech – and Carpenter’s claims raise questions about airport gate agents possibly benefiting from the scheme.
Internet reacts
The post divided opinion on X. Some suggested that Carpenter might have been mistaken in assuming the gate agents were Indians on H1B visas, and might instead be second-generation immigrants.
“That’s quite the take. Has it ever occurred to you that a) they’re citizens who are bilingual and b) that gate agent isn’t a type of job you could get an H1B for?” asked one X user in the comments section.
“They’re not the H1B workers, that’s the chain migration that they bring over,” another said.
“Ask Trump, he said he knew this visa s** was a scam to take our jobs and our ability to earn a respectable income. Now he loves them, uses them himself to pour wine at his home. We lose our income, marriages fall apart with broken families. Depression then suicide,” a user added.
